Respected Partners: The Scion Racing Rally xD won the second event of the Rally America 2013 Championship series this past weekend (February 22-23) in Salem, Missouri.

Official postings show that we won over our nearest competitor by over 2 minutes 19 seconds. When the team arrived for testing earlier that week, the weather was fair and mostly dry as the picture above details, but the following day Mother Nature decided to test the wills of all the drivers and teams and dumped several inches of snow all over the state and our stage race courses.

On day #1 of racing, the Scion Racing Rally xD caught up to, and then ended up passing, an EVO X that had started ahead of us. A small 14 second lead was still built by the end of the first day. Day #2 of racing was met by a few challenges. Sharp rocks covered by slushy ice punctured a tire and bent one of the wheels which had to be changed on stage by driver and co-driver. To make matters worse, the car encountered more ice covered rocks and broke the driver side rear bushing and bent a portion of the rear subframe. Fortunately, thanks to ACP’s skillful maneuvering and cautious driving, the Rally xD made it back to service where a new spare wheel and tire was replaced as well as the entire rear subframe.

“It was’t a flawless event but the team and drivers dealt with the challenges with ease and the results are what we set out for,” said Lead Technician Ben Schwartz. The next event of the series brings the teams west for the Oregon Trail Rally on May 3rd-5th; it is the only three day race event of the series. The race starts in downtown Portland and heads out to the mountain trails of Mount Hood.